Freshman Congressman Summer Lee Denounces AIPAC ‘Bullying’

Summer Lee is a freshman member of Congress, a member of The Squad, and deeply anti-Israel in her views and her votes. She finds it unfair that the pro-Israel organization AIPAC should have supported her opponents in both her primary contest and in her first election, and intends to do the same when she runs for reelection in 2024. Her indignation is strange: AIPAC is doing exactly what more than ten thousand other organizations, from the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, the American Medical Association, the AARP, do when they quite reasonably donate to those politicians who agree to support their demands. There is nothing wrong with this; its what happens in a democrac. Her complaint can be found here: “‘They’re Just an Extremely Wealthy White Org’: Squad Member Feuds With AIPAC Over ‘Bullying,’” by Andrew Bernard, Algemeiner, August 17, 2023:

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), a freshman congresswoman and new member of the so-called “Squad” of far-left lawmakers, accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of racist bullying in a fiery social media spat with the pro-Israel lobbying group on Wednesday.

“This is a right-wing bully group that supports actual insurrection, white supremacists,” Lee said of AIPAC in response to a post criticizing her decision to boycott Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress last month. “They spend even more money insisting that anyone who doesn’t agree [with] their extreme right-wing views is a bigot.”

This is of course nonsense. AIPAC does not support “white supremacists,” who in any case tend, unsurprisingly, to be antisemites as well. AIPAC criticized Lee’s boycott of Israeli President Herzog’s address to Congress, as a deliberate snub to Israel’s head of state, and by extension, to the country he represents. Wasn’t that what it was?

Lee insisted AIPAC was focusing on her due to her race, class, and progressive political agenda.

AIPAC has no interest in Summer Lee’s race or class, nor about her “progressive political agenda.” It cares only about her views of Israel. AIPAC has been a strong supporter of black representatives, such as Ritchie Torres, and Shontel Brown, who support Israel. In fact, more than half of the members of he Congressional Black Caucus support Israel and are, in turn, consistently supported by AIPAC. AIPAC has also supported black candidates running in Democratic primaries, such as Janice Winfrey, who lost her bid to replace Rashida Tlaib as the Democratic candidate. And AIPAC supports almost half of the members of the Progressive Caucus. Is Summer Lee aware of that?

“That’s the real reason they target and abuse me,” she said. “Because the truth is they’re just an extremely wealthy white org [sic] that operates like so many others: they hate progressive, Black, and poor folks fighting for themselves, who they can’t control.”

Lee also suggested that AIPAC used the charge of antisemitism to deflect criticism from itself.

I’d put it differently: those who so wildly attack AIPAC, like Summer Lee, for being “a right-wing bullying group” that supports “insurrectionists” and for wanting to deprive “black” and “poor” people of agency — as she complains — are quite properly “accused of antisemitism.” AIPAC is not in the business of deflecting all criticism — only that which is deserved — by labelling its critics as “antisemites.” It is Summer Lee who is herself trying to subvert all charges of antisemitism by labelling them as merely a ploy by AIPAC to silence its critics.

AIPAC is a “wealthy white organization.” Should AIPAC apologize for being good at fundraising? Should AIPAC apologize for the fact that most of its members — but by no means all — are “white”? Doesn’t Summer Lee’s comment criticizing AIPAC for being “white” smack of racism? And does AIPAC, as Lee claims, “hate progressive Black and poor folks”? We’ll say it again: AIPAC hates no one, including its sworn enemies Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, but it will try to defeat those who are consistently malevolent enemies of the Jewish state. Why is that wrong? AIPAC takes no position on economic matters; there are no grounds for claiming that it “hates poor folk.”

We’ll say it again: AIPAC supports more than half the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and nearly half of the members of the Progressive Caucus. Perhaps Summer Lee is unaware of this? Or is she aware, but doesn’t want others to know about AIPAC’s steady support for both black and progressive candidates, based on their favorable attitude toward Israel?

“To point out the obvious power dynamic gets us labeled antisemitic,” she wrote. “It makes us targets of dangerous and incredibly disingenuous attacks. It chills speech.”…

No, what causes AIPAC to label people as “antisemitic” is when, for example, those people falsely accuse Israel of being an “apartheid state,” that “practices genocide” — charges that make Israelis, and Jews in general, the targets of dangerous attacks by pro-Palestinian groups. When they falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, and demand that the IDF observe rules of warfare that are asked of no other country in the world, they are being “antisemitic.” Having one set of rules for Israel, and another for all other countries, is clearly antisemitic. What causes AIPAC to describe some people, such as Rashida Tlaib, as “antisemitic,” are their charges, against all of the evidence, that Israel is an “apartheid state” that “practices genocide” and their obsessive hatred of the Jewish state. Furthermore, what would also entitle AIPAC to label Summer Lee as “antisemitic” is her claim that a powerful cabal of Jews — the members of AIPAC — control much of Washington. That powerful cabal of Jews — come straight from the pages of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Since taking office, Lee has joined fellow Squad members like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in being strongly critical of Israel while serving in Congress. Last month, Lee was one of nine members of the House to vote against a resolution declaring Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state.”

Just how radical in her anti-Israel views Summer Lee turns out to be can be gauged from her being one of only nine, out of a total of 435 representatives, to vote against a resolution declaring that Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state.”

Such criticism has not prevented Lee from being endorsed by AIPAC rival J Street, which bills itself as “the political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans.” J Street’s endorsements of Lee, Bowman, and other members of Congress — such as Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) — who frequently attack Israel have been a growing point of contention between the two self-described pro-Israel groups.

J Street claims to be pro-Israel yet is consistently endorsing and fundraising for the most hostile critics of Israel — including Rep. Lee,” the AIPAC spokesman said.

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said on MSNBC on Sunday that AIPAC’s political activity has warped American perceptions of Israel as he sought to portray the lobbying group as a right-wing organization.

J Street likes to present itself as a “pro-Israel” group, but it consistently supports far-left candidates, including Jamaal Bowman, Betty McCollum, and Pramila Jayapal, who always vote against resolutions favorable to Israel. J Street hasn’t yet dared to endorse Rashida Tlaib and llhan Omar, but give Jeremy Ben Ami time; even those endorsements might in time become possible. J Street bills itself as “pro-Israel,” but denounces Israel’s settlements and, indeed, its presence in Judea and Samaria; it is “pro-Israel” only for those who think peace can be achieved once Israel agrees to be squeezed back within the 1949 armistice lines. Ben-Ami has no time for the Palestine Mandate, Article 6, or UNSC Resolution 242. Jewish rights? Jewish history? The Jewish need for defensible borders? Forget about them.

“AIPAC represents a small percentage of Jewish America that at this point is not able to see what is going on in Israel and not able to support democracy and that somehow thinks that it’s OK to endorse insurrectionists who voted overturn the 2020 election, because somehow they support Israel,” Ben-Ami said.

AIPAC, with more than 100,000 members, is several times the size of J Street. Ben Ami claims AIPAC doesn’t really know what is going on in Israel — unlike his own, supremely well-informed J Street — and he claims that AIPAC supports “insurrectionists” (that is, the people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021) because they “support Israel.” He offers no proof for either assertion: no proof that AIPAC backed “insurrectionists” and no proof that the “insurrectionists support Israel.” Jeremy Ben Ami doesn’t feel the need to provide such proof. He’s better informed than, and morally superior to, the far-right troglodytes at AIPAC.

And I’m quite sure Ben Ami will be happy to support the re-election of Summer Lee, who complains about J Street’s rival AIPAC as a “wealthy, white organization,” an “extreme right bullying group” that she claims opposes her not because of her views on Israel, but because of her “race” and “class.” AIPAC, however, has supported more than half of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, and almost half of the members of the Progressive Caucus. Summer Lee is apparently unaware of that support from AIPAC. She refuses to believe that anyone could think of her as “antisemitic” for labelling Israel as an “apartheid state” that is guilty of “genocide.” Her heart, she knows, is pure. How dare anyone try to suggest otherwise?